“We #Anantnag walas’s are proud of him. He belongs to Bakhshiabad Anantnag and was student of Montessori school. I am also a proud Montessorian. Jai Hind (sic)” –– Rajesh Raina, a displaced resident of South Kashmir’s Anantnag and editor with News18 Urdu TV, tweeted on Monday, 27 July 2020, after the national and the national media revealed Air Commodore Hilal Ahmad Rather’s Kashmiri domicile status.
Hilal hogged headlines for being associated at the top level with the Indian Air Force’s super ambitious Rafale manufacturing and acquisition project in France. His pictures on a Rafale jet went viral, within minutes of his visit to the project site with Ambassador Jawed Ashraf.
“It is not that we got only #Pakistan sponsored terrorism in Anantnag in South Kashmir. Our country has got many brave heroes, social workers, doctors and engineers from this area too. One of them is Hilal Ahmed. Air Commodore of the Indian Air Force from #Anantnag,” A freelance journalist from Jammu, Rakhi Dogra, tweeted.